Kara Mustafa Pasha
Kara Mustafa Pasha was the Ottoman grand vizier who besieged Vienna in 1683 and was executed for failing to take it. Born around 1634, he was raised in the household of the Köprülü family, the dynasty of viziers who had restored the empire's administration and finances after decades of decay, and he married into it. He became grand vizier in 1676 on the death of his brother-in-law Fazıl Ahmed Pasha. He inherited a state at the height of its recovery and chose to gamble it. The occasion was a Hungarian rebellion against Habsburg rule under Imre Thököly, who accepted Ottoman protection. Rather than a limited campaign in Hungary, Kara Mustafa took an army of well over a hundred thousand men to Vienna itself, which the Ottomans had failed to take in 1529. He arrived in July 1683 and settled to a siege rather than storming the city, which most later critics regard as the error — he wanted the city intact and its wealth undestroyed, since a city taken by assault was plundered by the troops and one that surrendered belonged to the sultan and to him. Mining brought the walls close to collapse by early September. A relief army under Jan Sobieski of Poland and Charles of Lorraine came over the Kahlenberg on 12 September and attacked downhill. The Ottoman camp was strung out around the city and could not concentrate, and the largest cavalry charge in history broke it. He was strangled with a silk cord at Belgrade that December.
- Lived: 1634 CE – 1683 CE
- Nationality: Ottoman
- Roles: military_leader, grand_vizier
